NDP MP Brosseau admits she's never visited Quebec riding

TROIS-RIVIERES, Que. — Controversial NDP MP Ruth Ellen Brosseau, who won her Quebec seat despite jetting off to Las Vegas mid-campaign, has broken her silence, admitting that she hadn’t expected to win in a riding she’s never stepped foot in before.

In her first interview since election night, Brosseau told Trois-Rivieres newspaper Le Nouvelliste she’s been an NDP supporter for years, so when the party asked her to run in Berthier-Maskinonge, she agreed.

“I didn’t expect to win,” she said, adding she’d seen the polls showing a surge in Quebec but didn’t know if that would translate into votes.

She watched the election results come in at party headquarters in Ottawa.

“It was really shocking to see the results on election night,” she told the newspaper. “But the longer it went on, the more the excitement grew.”

Since the election she’s been busy learning the ropes, and says she’s been made to feel very welcome.

Brosseau says she plans to visit her riding in the next several days.

“I’m very excited about visiting the riding. I hear it’s a lovely area.” She says she’s received a lot of email and messages expressing support for her candidacy, including a note from the mayor of Saint-Barthelemy, who is “very enthusiastic,” and has offered to show her around the riding.

Until this interview, the 27-year-old, who worked as an assistant pub manager at Ottawa’s Carleton University, hadn’t uttered a single word publicly since her victory Monday night.

But her name, photo and the few known details about her life have run in papers across the country, while questions about her ability to speak French, her nomination forms, and a mid-campaign trip to Las Vegas continue to swirl.

The interviewer notes Brosseau speaks French hesitantly — the party spokesman with her said Brosseau would accept questions in French but answer them largely in English — but the language obviously is not completely foreign to her.

She was born in Montreal to a French father and took French immersion in school after her family moved to Kingston, Ont. She says her French is rusty and will work to become fluently bilingual.

Brosseau denies suggestions that she’d step down and not take her seat in Parliament.

“Honestly, the idea of not sitting as an MP never occurred to me. I’m a person with a very strong will and I’m a very stubborn woman. Once I’ve decided to do something, I do it. I am very loyal. I’ve always supported the NDP and I hope to do the same thing for the people in my riding: I intend to support and represent them in Ottawa.”

She says she’s recently met with NDP leader Jack Layton as well as Thomas Mulcair, one of the first NDP MPs elected in Quebec, and both have offered their support.

She says she’s been taken aback by the media attention she’s received since the election, and the focus on her non-campaign.

“I think no one can really become used to receiving so much attention from the media. Even if you’re expecting it, you have to acknowledge that it’s a lot. But it’s certainly made me stronger as a person,” she told the paper.